This invention relates to piston assemblies and more particularly to a piston assembly especially suited for use with a hydraulic cylinder assembly.
Piston assemblies, including a piston mounted for sliding movement in a cylinder and a piston rod extending into one end of the cylinder for connection to the piston, are in common usage in many areas. For example, prefilled hydraulic master and slave cylinder assemblies of the type shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,599,860 to David Parsons and assigned to Automotive Products plc of Warwickshire, England, employ a piston assembly in the master cylinder as well as a similar piston assembly in the slave cylinder. These piston assemblies typically employ a metallic piston sliding in a metallic cylinder with a metallic piston rod connected to the piston. Whereas these metallic assemblies are generally satisfactory, they are relatively costly to produce, both from a materials and time standpoint. Whereas efforts have been made in the past to construct piston assemblies in whole or in part of nonmetallic materials such for example as plastic, problems have been encountered with these nonmetallic prior art assemblies because of the limited ability of the plastic or other nonmetallic material to withstand the loading encountered in certain environments such for example as the high pressure environment of the hydraulic master and slave cylinder assembly of the type shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,599,860.